Every day on announcements, the students at San Luis Obispo High School can be sure that someone will be talking about football. Every game is talked about on TNN, all the way down to the smallest details such as who scored the points, and how many points they scored. And yet, a previous cross country meet wasn’t even mentioned. 

  What about cross country?  Why is no one talking about the fall sport with the most participation? There are over 100 people in cross country and they are dominant in their division. Yet, people barely seem to know they exist. 

  “My team was stretching when one of the football players walked by us and actually said “Who are these people,” said freshman Lily Duggan. From this statement, it is implied that many people don’t even know the sport exists at SLOHS. 

  “We won CIF pre-eliminations and no one said anything. They said ‘oh but basketball, they got like 4th in CIF. They did great.’ And we said ‘oh okay but we won.’” said senior Ellie Triechler.

  There is the obvious appeal of football games, sometimes having nothing to do with the sport itself. It seems less likely that people would want to get up at 6:30 to go to a cross country meet. But the thing that cross country has that no fall sport can really capture, is a true race. The feeling of watching our team take off and come back on top. Screaming at the runners to run a little faster away from the enemy, or even better, run towards. 

  “Cross Country showed me that no matter what, time is going to pass and you’re gonna get through something. Even if you think it’s super hard and you think you’re not gonna make it, you can look to that end goal. And have faith in yourself that your gonna complete it, ” said senior Catrina Sada. 

  Yeah, football’s cool. But let’s stop talking about it for a second, and try to see what other sports have to offer. Not just watching a sport, but participating too. 

  “What kept me doing the sport was the team. Because when you die together, you stay together,” said Triechler. 

 For most people, the idea of doing cross country seems crazy. But when you actually get out there, there’s really nothing like it. 

  “I kept doing the sport because of the community and just mental strength and physical strength [gained from cross country]. Oh, and the food. I don’t think water has ever tasted that good.” said Treichler.